


RWRB Study Guide

by HMS_Chill



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Analysis, Other, just straight up english major brain, not technically fic?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 17,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22853536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HMS_Chill/pseuds/HMS_Chill
Summary: I'm going through RWRB chapter by chapter and explaining the cultural/mythological/historical references! I was just going to put it on my Tumblr, but this seemed like a good place to reach fanfic writers, who might find it useful :)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 58





	1. Chapter 1

**Jack Ford** (1): Son of president Gerald Ford, who was in college during most of his father’s presidency, but made headlines by bringing former Beatle George Harrison to the White House. The Ford children in general were known for causing problems for security and being in general more rebellious than other first children.

 **Luci Johnson** (1): Daughter of Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, she changed the spelling of her name at age 18 as a form of rebellion against her parents.

 **Gloria Steinem** (2): A self-described radical feminist who began her work in the late 1960s. She is one of the most famous members of the second-wave feminist movement, and in 2015, she said that as she got older, she felt she was free of the “demands of gender”.

 **Zora Neale Hurston** (2)*: Anthropologist and writer from the Harlem Renaissance. She was a prolific writer who pioneered a style of writing in dialect and focused on Black women’s stories, especially in the American South. _Their Eyes Were Watching God_ is her most popular novel. She was also queer, and lived with poet/playwright Georgia Douglas Johnson. (She’s so cool I love her)

 **Dolores Huerta** (2): Labor union leader and civil rights activist who worked with Cesar Chaves to organize the Delano Grape Strike in 1965, which was a major step in earning rights for the (mostly hispanic) farm workers in southern California. She was the first Latina woman admitted to the National Women’s Hall of Fame and is a hero for much of the Latino community. 

**Caroline Kennedy** (2): Daughter of JFK

 **Nancy Reagan** (3): Wife of Ronald Reagan, whose policies were detrimental for queer and poor folks especially.

 **Hall & Oates** (3): An American pop rock duo from the 1970s.

 **WaPo** (4): The Washington Post, a East-coast specific newspaper that has been traditionally left-leaning, but is now owned by Jeff Bezos.

 **W Hotel** (5): A luxury hotel marketed toward a younger demographic that focus on maintaining a fun and relaxing vibe.

 **Modern-day Kennedys** (6): The Kennedys are a dynasty of American politicians 

**“Bug”** (8): A pun on June’s name, referencing a June bug

 ** _Garden State_** (8): A 2004 movie about an actor/waiter who returns to his hometown of New Jersey after his mother dies. It is based on the director’s experiences and has gained a cult following. It was a favorite at the Sundance Film Festival.

 **“London Luck, & Love”** (8): A Hall & Oates song, a love song about spending time in London and being lucky enough to quickly fall in love with someone. 

**Hill country of Texas** (8): An area in central/south Texas that is historically liberal.

 **Lometa** (9): A small town (856 in 2010) in central Texas.

 **Fort Hood** (9): A large US Military post built in 1942 as a place to test tanks.

 ** _Death Comes for the Archbishop_** (9): A rambling 1927 novel that re-tells the lives of Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Joseph Projectus Machebeuf as Catholic clergy in New Mexico.

 **“Trash turtles all the way down”** (11): “Turtles all the way down” is a phrase that means that things keep getting consistently worse

 ** _GQ_** (11): Gentleman’s Quarterly, a magazine targeted to men and focused on fashion and culture.

 **MIT** (11): The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a very advanced school for STEM subjects. 

**Viscount** (12): The 4th rank in the British peerage system, above baron and below earl 

**Cucumber Sandwich** (12)**: In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde makes a gay sex/dick joke involving cucumber sandwiches found down on the docks (a place where queer men could often find sex, either for free or for a fee). 

**Vampire sex-waifs** (13): A reference to the three half-crazed, semi-human women living in Dracula’s castle

 **Waltz** (14)***: A style of ballroom dance that is relatively easy to pick pick up, yet demands at least a bit of rigidity and distance. Henry mentions later that he doesn’t like it.

——

*Hurston is so cool. Scholars have extended what we call the Harlem Renaissance just so she can be in it, and she’s such an incredible writer, and she was so gay and so cool and I love her a lot. She literally perfected the a style of writing in dialogue that works beautifully, and everything I’ve read from her (fiction and nonfiction) has been gorgeous. That’s it; that’s the note.

**I’d just like to shout out my old butch theater prof freshman year who stood in front of this room of dumbass college kids and explained this 200-year-old dick joke. She changed my life (for other, non-dick-joke-related reasons).

***I didn’t want to build this into the packet itself, since it’s more analysis than definition, but the fact that Henry waltzes with June in public when the waltz is a rigid/controlled dance, then later reveals before a private dance with Alex that he doesn’t care for waltzing? And that we don’t even get to know what kind of dance they do, because it’s both too private for even us to know and it’s not one with a name or an easy description; it’s a dance unique to them in that moment? Poetry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	2. Chapter 2

**Cakegate** (21): Reference to Watergate, a political controversy from the 1970s; the Watergate Scandal still holds quite a bit of prevalence in American culture.

 **Situation Room** (22): the John F. Kennedy Conference Room, AKA “the Situation Room”, is a secure conference room in the basement of the West Wing. 

**_The Sun_** (22): A British tabloid

 **Howard** (24): Howard University is a historically Black university just outside of Washington DC. It opened in 1867, just after the end of the American Civil War and is known for its STEM programs and law school.

 **Equerry** (24): A personal attendant to a member of the royal family (historically, someone who was in charge of their horses).

 ** _ITV This Morning_** (26): A British daytime cable show

 **SNL** (26): Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy TV show that brings in a new celebrity host every week. 

**_People_** (27): An American magazine that covers celebrity gossip.

 **Clintons** (27): Bill Clinton has one child, Chelsea Clinton, and her parents worked to shield her from the press during his presidency.

 **Sasha and Malia** (27): President Obama’s daughters, who were pre-teens and teenagers during his White House years and have faced rather invasive press coverage since. 

**Patsy Cline** (28): An American singer from the 1950s, considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century and one of the firsts artists to cross from country music to pop.

 **Op-Ed** (28): “Opposite the Editorial”; a one-page piece of writing for a magazine or other news piece that is not associated with the views of the publication.

 **Essential Oils, Cabin in the Vermont Wilderness, LLB Vests, Patchouli** (29): These are all markers that Nora’s parents are outdoorsy, maybe to the extent of being a bit detached from the “real world”. 

**Essential Oils** : These are oils that can help people relax or create a positive atmosphere, but have little to no health benefits beyond that. Many people believe they can help cure serious or chronic illnesses.

**Cabin in the Vermont Wilderness** : Vermont’s wooded areas would be a very nice place for a cabin

**LLBean vests** : LLBean is a brand that sells high-end outdoors clothes

**Patchouli** : A type of essential oil

 **Mutton Pie** (30): A small, double-crust meat pie native to Scotland but common throughout the UK

 **Oxford** (30): Oxford University is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and with a 17% acceptance rate in 2017, it is an incredibly difficult school to get into. For American applicants, they require a 3.7 GPA (based on a 4.0 system) and a 32/36 on the ACT.

 **Eton** (31): A posh boarding school for boys 13-18, founded in 1440. It is one of the most prestigious schools in the world.

 ** _Great Expectations_** (31): a 1860-61 novel by Charles Dickens, where a young boy rises above a lowly birth to be “worthy of” a rich girl he falls in love with.

 **Khakis vs. Chinos** (32): Chinos are tighter than khakis and tend to be a bit more dressy. 

**Gap vs. J. Crew** (32): Gap is a relatively inexpensive brand; J. Crew is a more expensive alternative.

 **SeaWorld San Antonio** (32): SeaWorld is a theme park/aquarium known in the past ten years or so for inhumane treatment of its animals.

 **Walrus Mustache** (32): A thick, bushy mustache that falls over the wearer’s mouth.

 **Land Rover** (33): A British brand of car that offers only premium and luxury sport vehicles.

 **Shaan** (33): Hindi name meaning “Pride”.

 **Aston Martin** (33): A sports car favored by James Bond.

 **Kensington Palace** (33): A relatively modest palace surrounded by Kensington Gardens, the traditional home of royal children.

 **Millionaire who wants to hunt you…** (35): A reference to the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, in which a rich man lures the protagonist to his private island and hunts him for sport.

 **Texas Panhandle** (35): A rural area of northern Texas.

 **Waterboarded** (36): Tortured; this is a reference to America’s history of torturing people in Guantanamo Bay.

 **Helados** (37): Fruit-flavored ice cream bars from Mexico.

 **Nate Silver** (38): American statistician and writer who created an algorithm to predict baseball players’ future success. He has more recently switched to highly accurate political predictions.

 **GW** (38): George Washington University, a college in Washington DC where Alex goes to school.

 **Data Czar** (39): A position in a company where the person who holds it manages that company’s data and reports directly to its top management.

 **PPOs** (39): Private Patrol Officers or bodyguards.

 **Cornettos** (39): A British ice cream cone with nuts and chocolate, similar to an American drumstick.

 **Signet ring** (40): A ring with the king’s seal; traditionally that seal would be pressed into wax and would serve as a substitute for the king’s signature. It signifies royal power.

 **Beans and white toast** (41): This is… a genuine British breakfast. Just plain beans and white toast. Beans are a staple in both Mexican and Texan/Tex-Mex foods, but they are typically heavily seasoned.

 **Yellow pill** (41): From what I could find, this could be a pill used to deal with anxiety/symptoms of anxiety, such as Clonazepam.

 **Jolly old England** (41): A very English way to refer to England.

 **Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust** (44): A specialist cancer treatment hospital in London.

 **Alliance Starbird** (44): The symbol of the Rebel Alliance in the Star Wars movies.

 **Caipirinhas** (50): Brazil’s national cocktail; it is made in large batches and contains a sugar-based hard liquor, sugar, and lime. 

**Pancreatic cancer** (51): A type of cancer that is typically not caught until it has progressed to the point of being incurable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	3. Chapter 3

**Dirksen Building** (55): An office building for sitting US senators.

 **Bitch McConnell** (55): US senate majority leader and leader of the Republican (conservative) party in the senate. (His real name is Mitch McConnell, but this is better).

 ** _The Hill_** (56): A US political newspaper/ news site that claims it is read by the White House and more lawmakers than any other.

 **Carpal tunnel** (56): A syndrome caused by “repetitive motions, like typing, or any wrist movements that you do over and over”.

 **Muddy Waters** (56): An American blues artist known as the “father of modern Chicago blues”. 

**Anointed messiah** (59): The messiah is the person promised to save Israel in the Torah, and in Hebrew culture, anointing someone with oil was the way to signify that they would one day be king. According to Christian tradition, Jesus was the messiah, and the term has shifted a bit to mean someone chosen or appointed by god.

 **Office pool** (59): In a betting pool, everyone puts in a bit of money with their guess, and whoever is closest to correct gets all the money. They are somewhat common in offices, often centered around sporting tournaments such as March Madness.

 **The times they are a-changin** (60): a Bob Dylan song about how the world is becoming more accepting. 

**Beer pong** (60): A game common at college fraternity parties, often in pairs. It involves throwing ping pong balls into cups partially filled with beer.

 **Maxine Waters** (61): A Democratic (liberal) senator from California who has been serving since 1991. 

**Shiner** (62): A beer brewed in Shiner, Texas.

 **Ronan Farrow** (64): A gay American journalist who won The New Yorker the Pulitzer prize for public service in 2018. He is known for his coverage of recent sexual assault scandals/allegations. He is also the son of Woody Allen, though he is estranged from his father (who may or may not actually be his biological father). 

**New York magazine** (64): An American bi-weekly magazine initially focused on style, culture, politics, and general life in New York City, but which has broadened its scope to become more national in recent years.

 **Woody Allen** (64): A very old actor/writer/director/comedian known for """allegedly""" sexually assaulting his seven year old adopted daughter.

 **George W. Bush terrier painting** (64): I wish I could un-google these; they have as much soul as Cats (2019). One in particular looks like something that you’d see when you have sleep paralysis. 

**Netanyahu** (64): Prime minister of Israel.

 **Tel Aviv** (65): Economic and technological center of Israel.

 **Mass comm** (66): Mass communications, a journalism degree.

 **Tablescapes** (67): An artistic arrangement of pieces such as candlesticks, dishes, and placemats on a table.

 **Chief Chirpa** (68): Leader of the ewoks, a small group of teddy-bear like aliens played by children around age 11, in _Return of the Jedi_. (the final movie in the original Star Wars trilogy, and Henry’s favorite)

 **Australian beach** (68): Fun fact, the UK still owns Australia. I don’t know why.

 **Inbreeding** (69) (nice): Royal families have traditionally been really into only marrying people of their own social status, and when your family is the only royal family of a country, that often meant inbreeding. (to clarify, 69 is nice. Inbreeding is not. It gets real bad; Charles II was so inbreed he couldn’t chew food or walk)

 **Dickensian street urchin** (70): Charles Dickens is known for writing stories about starving orphans who live on the street, such as Oliver Twist.

 **Lord Byron** (70)*: British Romantic poet who fought for freedom in Greece. He was quite the figure; on one trip to Venice, he spent so much time with sex workers that he forgot to eat and almost died.

 **Bluebonnet** (71): The state flower of Texas.

 **2005 _Pride & Prejudice_** (71): An adaptation starring Keira Knightley. It is not as accurate to the book as the 1995 BBC adaptation, but it is credited with having popularized Austen’s stories for a younger audience than the BBC version.

 **Garroted** (71): Strangled.

 **Justin Trudeau** (71): Prime minister of Canada (whose official languages are both English and French).

 **Macron** (71): Emmanuel Macron, president of France.

 **Taylor Swift’s 4th of July Party** (71): Pop/country singer Taylor Swift’s 4th of July parties are known for being one of the hot invites of the year, and is typically both very photogenic and full of other (especially female) celebrities.

 **Casterly rock** (72): A castle stronghold from Game of Thrones.

 **Empire’s blood money** (72): Most of England’s money is due to colonialism, which led to a whole lot of death.

 **Thistle in the arse crack** (73): The thistle is Scotland’s national flower due to the fact that it once stabbed an Englishman in the foot. 

—-

*Alex complains that Henry “can drone on about Lord Byron until you threaten to block his number”. I can… maybe also do that; if y’all are interested. He had a short life but he packed a lot in, and I love the Romantics a lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	4. Chapter 4

**The Willard** (75): A luxury hotel just down the street from the White House, where rooms can cost up to $8,000 per night. It hosts the turkeys to be pardoned by the president.

 **Cornbread and Stuffing** (75): Traditional Thanksgiving dishes. Pardoning turkeys are commonly named after foods associated with Thanksgiving, recently including Bread, Butter, Cheese, and Apple.

 **Pennsylvania Avenue** (75): The street that the White House and Willard are on.

 **Until I pardon them** (75): The pardoning of the turkeys is an actual American tradition. Americans began sending turkeys to the president around the same time we started celebrating Thanksgiving, and the tradition of pardoning them began with Clinton in 1999. Only one turkey is officially pardoned, but there is always a backup turkey.

 **En suite** (76): A bathroom directly connected to a bedroom.

 **CNN** (76): Cable News Network, a liberal news station.

 **Republican primary debate** (76): A debate between candidates for the Republican (conservative) party, held before the party decides who they will nominate for the presidential race.

 **Summer home in Majorca** (79): Majorca is an island in the Mediterranean, just off the coast of Spain.

 ** _Jurassic Park*_** (79): A movie in which dinosaurs escape from their cages and the main characters have to escape them.

 **Autoerotic asphyxiation** (80): “erotic asphyxiation” is essentially sexual choking; if it’s “autoerotic” it would be Alex doing it to himself.

 **Silk pillow over my face** (80): This may be a reference to the Shakespeare play _Othello_ where (spoilers, though it’s been out for like 500 years) the title character smothers his wife with a pillow after rumors that she’s cheating on him.

 **Jaffa cakes** (80): A British snack with a sponge cake base, a layer of orange jam, and topped with chocolate.

 **Jabba** (81): Jabba the Hutt, a Star Wars character.

 ** _Great British Bake Off_** (81): A famously wholesome baking show that is technically a competition between home bakers from around the UK, though it is far from competitive.

 **Scandinavian skin care** (81): Many luxury skincare brands have come from Scandinavian countries in the past few years.

 ** _Chopped_** (82): An incredibly competitive American cooking show.

 ** _The Manson tapes_** (82): A series of tapes revealing the dealings of the Manson Cult, which was responsible for nine murders in 1969.

 **David Bowie** (82): A famously bisexual British actor and musician known for his bold presentation and stagecraft. He was admitted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. 

**_Seinfeld_** (82): An American sitcom from the 1990s. Wayne Knight, who played Dennis Nedry and had a very bad time in Jurassic Park, was also in Seinfeld.

 **Jeff Goldblum** (82): An American actor (and force of chaos) known for his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, a scientist who sees from the very beginning that maybe breeding massive predators is a bad idea.

 ** _The Post_** (84): The Washington Post

 **Oval Office** (84): The president’s office in the White House

 **Lincoln Bedroom** (85): A guest bedroom that is part of the Lincoln Suite in the White House, named after President Lincoln, who used to room as an office.

 **Chocolate shop on the first floor** (85): According to the White House Museum online, there is a chocolate shop on the bottom floor of the White House that prepares the chocolates served in the White house.

 ** _The Atlantic_** (85): An American editorial magazine that covers news, politics, education, science, and more. It targets serious readers and “thought leaders”.

 **Truman Balcony** (85): A balcony overlooking the White House’s South Lawn (in the “back” of the White House).

 **Mijo** (85): For those who haven’t read my fic “Speaking My Language”, “mijo” is Spanish term of endearment that translates directly to “my son” (Mi hijo)

 **Washington monument** (86): A tall obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, DC, dedicated to George Washington.

 **Eisenhower Building** (86): The Eisenhower Executive Offices Building is a building that houses the executive Office of the President, including the Vice President’s office.

 **Los Bastardos** (86): Spanish for “The bastards”.

 **Caldillo** (86): a spicy Mexican beef stew.

 **Masa** (86): A corn/maize dough used for making corn tortillas, tamales, and other Mexican/Latin American dishes.

 **Valedictorian** (87): A student who ranks the highest in their graduating class in high school.

 **New Orleans** (87): A city in Louisiana known for its vibrant blend of French and Creole culture, its jazz scene, and its Mardi Gras celebration. It is also Casey McQuinston’s hometown.

 **AP classes** (90): Advanced placement classes are high school classes taught at a college level; at the end of the year, students take a test to determine whether or not they will get college credit for it.

 **Hanukkah** (90): A Jewish celebration honoring the second rededicating of the temple in Jerusalem. It is not traditionally a major Jewish holiday, but it has become one of the best-known due to the fact that it occurs near Christmas every year. 

**“Good King Wenceslas”** (91): A traditional Christmas song about a king who braves the cold to give alms to a poor peasant on Christmas.

 **Jim-jams** (91): Pajamas.

 **Tiger sharks over a baby seal** (91): According to my roommate, who loves sharks, tiger sharks are one of the most vicious types of sharks. They’re bottom feeders, so they wouldn’t necessarily get seals too often, but if they got one, they would be all over it.

 **Bougie** (95): Fancy or upper class (from the French “bourgeoisie”).

 **Real Housewife** (95): The Real Housewives of [City] are a string of semi-popular American reality TV shows.

 **East Room** (95): An event and reception room in the White House.

 **Tramp stamp** (96): A tattoo on the lower back, associated with less savory activities and a general air of trashiness.

 **Zac Posen** (97): A gay, Jewish fashion designer from New York, known for his glamorous evening gowns and cocktail dresses.

 **Middle-shelf whiskey** (97): A “middle shelf” alcohol is one step up from the cheapest option; a whiskey is a dark alcohol associated with Texas/the West.

 **“American Girl”** (98): A 1976 rock song that has become a rock classic. 

**Center for American Progress** (98): A liberal public policy research and advocacy organization.

 **Pez (candy)** (99): A type of small, sweet pieces of candy that come from fancy, collectable Pez dispensers.

 **Sky writers** (99): Sky writers use the trails of their airplanes to write things in the sky. It costs at least $3,500 for a single message.

 **“Get Low”** (101): Despite its incredibly raunchy lyrics, this song was a common one at school dances in the early 2010s. I was in middle school in roughly 2010-2012, and I have vivid memories of people being into this song with a general idea that we shouldn't be.

 **The Kid ‘n Play** (102): A dance move pioneered by the hip-hop duo of the same name, loosely based on the Charleston. 

**Vato** (102): Mexican slang for “friend”, “person”, or “dude”. 

**Moët & Chandon** (102): A luxury French champagne. (it's what the super classy woman in Queen's "Killer Queen" drinks)

 **New Year’s Kiss** (103): At least in the US, it’s traditionally considered good luck to kiss someone at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s.

 **Peach schnapps** (103): Schnapps is a sweet, inexpensive, and very alcoholic drink.

 **Rookie NFL running back** (103): A running back is a football position responsible for running with the ball. Most are either short and quick to avoid tackles or big and stocky to power through them.

 **Yacht kid** (104): Someone rich.

 **Orion**** (105): A winter northern hemisphere constellation of a hunter/warrior. According to Greek mythology, Orion was the only man (or person) the goddess Artemis ever loved, but she refused to give up her life with her huntresses for him. He began burning/destroying her forest in retribution, and she is forced to kill him.

 **America’s golden boy** (105): A “golden boy” is a boy who is favored or put upon a pedestal. 

**Tequila** (106): A type of alcohol that originates from central Mexico.

 **Bloke** (106): British slang for a “regular dude” or everyday man.

 ** _Teen Vogue_** (106): An American magazine aimed at teenagers that used to focus on fashion and celebrity news, but has more recently shifted to dealing with serious social issues.

——

*This movie is especially known for its special effects, which are incredible because they actually built animatronic dinosaurs and also got real scientists on the project to help them figure out how dinosaurs would move/act. After it came out, earth and environmental science departments around the world got a ton of funding to see if they could find any dinosaur DNA in fossils, as that’s a central part of the movie’s plot.

**According to a nerd astronomy class I took in like 4th grade, every culture who could see Orion saw a warrior, which is just… really cool to me. That so many people for so long saw the same thing in a set of stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	5. Chapter 5

**Linden tree** (110): In Baltic mythology, the linden tree is sacred to Laima, the goddess of fate. It is a sacred tree and traditional place for making communal decisions in Slavic mythology and was planted to mark a special occasion. It has heart-shaped leaves, and two American presidents have planted linden trees outside the White House.

 **Reflecting Pool** (110): A long, rectangular pool in the middle of Washington DC. It is about 0.83 miles around

 **Kid Cudi** (110): An American hip-hop artist and rapper known for creating more introspective or emotional music than traditional/stereotypical rap. 

**Cajeta** (112): A syrup from Mexico made of caramelized goat’s milk.

 **Bar trivia team ringer** (112): The person who will help your team in bar trivia, a common group outing for Americans in their early 20s.

 **Treaty room** (114): The president’s study.

 **WASPy** (115): A “WASP” (oritingally for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is someone who was born into quite a lot of privilege and has not questioned it or analyzed the ways they benefit from it.

 **Boston** (115): A very white, liberal city in Massachusetts. 

**Improv shows** (116): Improvisation, or improv comedy, is a hobby with a reputation for attracting insufferable, privileged white boys in college.

 **Naval Observatory** (117): Number One Observatory Circle, on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory, is the official residence of the Vice President.

 **Montpelier** (117): The capital city of Vermont, a state in the Northeast US that has been consistently very liberal since 2007. In 2000, it was the first state to officially recognize same-sex civil unions.

 **Columbia Heights** (117): A diverse neighborhood in Washington, DC known for its restaurant scene and its views of downtown DC.

 ** _Drag Race_** (117): RuPaul’s Drag Race is a reality competition show that pits drag queens against each other. 

**Batbacoa** (117): A method of cooking meat (in the US, typically beef) that originated in Mexico and predates barbecue flavors.

 **Shotgun a bottle of barbecue sauce** (117): Shotgunning, which is typically done with beer, involves putting a hole in the bottom of a container, opening it, and letting the contents pour into your mouth. It’s typically very, very messy.

 **Boyer-Moore majority vote algorithm** (118): An algorithm that finds the majority factor in a series of votes. 

**Fire-Island-on-the-Fourth-of-July** (119): Fire Island is off the cost of New York and a popular destination for queer tourists, especially on the 4th of July.

 **Still waters, deep dicking** (120): The actual quote is “still waters run deep”; it means that shy people often have a lot going on under the surface.

 **Croquembouche** (121): a very fancy French pastry made of a tower of smaller choux pastries stacked into a cone and covered in caramel.

 **Off-Broadway play*** (121): Plays that are “off-Broadway” have done well in other places in the country, and an off-Broadway run in the final step before a show goes to Broadway. They are often given very little money and tiny theater spaces, which tends to hurt them or give them a bad reputation.

 **Anderson Cooper** (122): An openly gay CNN anchor.

 **The Smithsonian** (123): A series of national museums in the US; it is located in DC. It includes 19 museums, 21 libraries, and a variety of other research centers. 

**Silver-spoon little shit** (124): Someone born with a silver spoon was born with quite a bit of privilege.

 **REI-wearing teenage antifascist** (125): REI is a brand known for outdoor clothes, and the anti-fascists are a group known for radical, occasionally illegal, liberal political protests and action.

 **Bloody Mary** (126): A cocktail with vodka and tomato juice, commonly drunk with brunch.

——  
*Sorry this got a little rant-y; I’m a big theater kid and think off-Broadway works deserve a lot more credit than they get.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	6. Chapter 6

**State dinner** (128): A formal dinner held in honor of a foreign head of state.

 **Prime minister** (128): The elected head of the British government.

 **State dining room** (129): The larger of two dining rooms on the state floor of the White House.

 ** _Doctor Who_** (130): A British TV show popular throughout the UK and with nerds in the US. 

**Red Room** (130): A parlor next to the State Dining Room in the White House used for small dinner parties. I couldn’t find anything about a portrait of Alexander Hamilton there, but it seems like each president to move into the White House redecorates it to an extent, so it is very possible that Ellen Claremont could have added one when she moved in.

 **Profiteroles** (131): A French cream puff.

 **Frog-marching** (131): Forcing someone forward, holding their arms behind their back.

 **Alexander Hamilton*** (132): A very bi founding father, who was launched to fame in the mid 2010s by the musical Hamilton. He’s the one Alex is named after. 

**“God Save the Queen”** (133): The national anthem of the UK. (listen here– this video is filmed in Westminster Abbey, which is where royals get married, for all y’all writing wedding fics)

 **No-fly list** (134): A list of people not allowed to fly within, into, or out of the U.S. maintained by the federal government’s terrorist screening center.

 **The moors** (136): A wide-open, incredibly photogenic area of the English/Welsh countryside that have been romanticized and used regularly in romantic literature (think like… Austen and Wuthering Heights and Virginia Woolf).

 **Fruit basket** (143): A typical “hey I don’t know you but I appreciate that you did a thing” gift from a business or rich person.

 **Herculean strength** (143): Hercules (or Heracles, in Greek) was a Greek/Roman hero and demi-god known for his incredible strength and also for killing his family and then having to atone for that but shhh.

 **Crossed some kind of Rubicon** (143): Caesar’s 49 BCE crossing of the Rubicon river ushered in the rise of Imperial Rome; “crossing the Rubicon” typically means taking an irrevocable step toward something.

 ** _Washington crossing the Delaware_** (143): Washington’s crossing of the Delaware river was a turning point in the American Revolutionary War and has been immortalized in a famous painting by Emanuel Leutze. 

**Potomac** (146): A river that flows past/through Washington, DC.

 **Polo** (146): A sport that has been called “the sport of kings”; it is played on horseback and generally associated with incredibly rich people.

 **Greenwich, Connecticut** (146): The wealthiest town in Connecticut. For McQuinston’s (queer) American audience, this could also evoke ideas of Greenwich Village, the historically queer neighborhood in New York City where the Stonewall Inn is located.

 **J. Crew** (147): he said their chinos look weird on his ass back in chapter 2…

 **Greenwich Polo Club** (147): According to their website, Greenwich Polo Club is one of the best polo clubs in the world.

 **Circle of hell** (148): In Dante’s Inferno, he mentions that hell is made up of nine circles, each of which contains a particular type of torture for different sinners.

 **Polo stick/bat/club/mallet** (149): Wikipedia says it’s a polo mallet.

 **Apollo**** (149): The Greek god of the sun, who was like… indescribably bi. He isn’t exactly the patron god of queerness, but he has been referenced in queer literature/queer culture for ages.

 **Lèse-majesté** (153): French for “to do wrong to majesty”; an offense to a monarch or ruler.

 **Scepter** (154): The staff or wand held by a British monarch as a symbol of their power.

—-

* One of Hamilton’s letters to his “friend” John Laurens essentially says “hey wish you’d been at my wedding; my new wife was super down for a threesome”

** A lot of his partners also got turned into plants, which is kind of a bummer, but what can you do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	7. Chapter 7

**Crêpe-eating tourists** (157): Crepes are a thin, flat pancake traditionally filled with sugar, but commonly filled with other toppings. They are an iconic French dish and are popular with tourists both for this reason and because they are typically inexpensive.

 **Place du Tertre** (157): A square in Paris, it is in the Montmarte district, which is known for its art history.

 **Crusty baguettes** (157): Baguettes are a French bread that is meant to be crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.

 ** _Le Monde_** (158): The most popular French newspaper.

 **Fromagerie Nicole Barthélémy** (158): A famously wonderful cheese shop in Paris.

 **Parisian cheese shop** (158): French cheese are known for being fancy and especially good.

 **Pisces** (159): A zodiac sign known for being compassionate, artistic, and intuitive.

 **NYU** (159): New York University.

 **The Met** (159): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a famous art museum in New York.

 **Joanne** (160): JK Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter books, and has been pretty consistently homophobic and transphobic on twitter. 

**Freddie Mercury** (161): Lead singer of the band Queen, Mercury never officially came out, but he had long-term relationships with both men and women and was known for his camp performances, and there are claims that he was “openly gay”. His flamboyance and camp performances, as well as his relationship with partner Jim Hutton, essentially demanded that people simply take him as he was. He died of complications from AIDS in 1991, one day after admitting openly that he had been diagnosed four years earlier.

For context within the book, he wrote “Don’t Stop Me Now”

 **Elton John** (161): A famous British musician. He came out as bisexual in 1976, then as gay in 1992. He and his husband, David Furnish, became civil partners in 2005, the day they became legal in the UK. They were officially married on the ninth anniversary of their civil partnership, the year that gay marriage was legalized within the UK.

 **Bowie** (161): David Bowie, who was a bi British musician and actor who, in 1976, described his bisexuality as “the best thing that ever happened to me”. His wife (who was also bi, and with whom he often shared partners) claimed that he had a relationship with Mick Jagger, though his bisexuality has been consistently erased, both during his life and since his death.

Again for book context, Henry’s dog is named for David Bowie

 **Jagger** (161): Mick Jagger, an English singer/songwriter and member of the Rolling Stones, known for his promiscuity. As mentioned above, he and Bowie pretty clearly had a relationship, though his Wikipedia makes no mention of queerness. 

**Oakley Street** (161): A street that runs through an affluent borough of London.

 **Stonewall** (161): The Stonewall Inn in New York City is a gay bar. The riots against police brutality there in July of 1969 are heralded as the beginning of the gay rights movement.

 **SCOTUS decision in 2015** (161): The Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage across the US.

 **Walt Whitman** (161): An American poet who wanted to become The American Poet and saw himself as the quintessential American. His poetry often deals with his queerness, and he absolutely slept with Oscar Wilde in the late 1800s. 

Fun fact; he is celebrated in the movie _The Dead Poets Society_ , which is popular with Sad Gay English Majors and which Henry would definitely have seen.

 **Laws of Illinois 1961** (161): In 1961, Illinois became the first state in the US to repeal its sodomy laws.

 **White Night Riot** (161): A series of riots in San Francisco protesting the lenient sentencing of the man who killed Harvey Milk, the first openly queer politician. The riots were the most violent queer uprising since the events at the Stonewall.

 **Paris is Burning** (161): A 1990s movie celebrating drag ball culture in New York. It celebrates in particular queer communities of color in the late 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic was at its peak.

 **“If I die of AIDS…”** (161): This is a real photo. The man’s jacket could refer to a form of protest called “die-ins”, where people with AIDS would go to a homophobic politician’s office or another public place where they were refused treatment and simply not leave until after they died.

 **Chop my own tit off** (162): Fun mythology fact; the Amazons (warrior women from Greek mythology) actually did this to make themselves better archers.

 **H fucking W** (162): George HW Bush, a former US president.

 **George** (163): George Villers was the boyfriend of King James the I/VI. Prince George, Duke of Kent, was rumored to be in a polyamorous relationship in the 1920s. 

**Edward** (162): Edward II was a famously gay king. He was may have been "wedded brothers" with Piers Gaveston and may have also had a relationship with Hugh le Despenser the younger following Gaveston's death.

 **James** (162): The British king known for translating the Bible and being just… indescribably gay and very deeply horny. He promoted his boyfriend, George Villers, to the highest non-royal position in the UK within a few years of starting to date him. James’s friends actively tried to set him up with hot guys for their own political gain.

 **Alexander** (163): Alexander Hamilton was an incredibly bi founding father. He’s remembered for founding our current national banking system, having the first ever American sex scandal, and for literally never shutting up or knowing how to stop being A Lot All The Time. 

**Catalina** (164): Catalina is an island near Los Angeles. On a more meta level, St. Catalina was a respected writer.

 **June** (164): June Carter Cash was an American singer/songwriter/director/comedian.

 **Tricky Dick** (164): Richard Nixon, a president remembered for wiretapping his opponent.

 **Taft** (165): 27th president of the United States.

 **Eisenhower** (165): 34th president of the US.

 **Baby** (166): this is what Henry’s mom calls him.

 ** _Daily Mail_** (166): A trashy British tabloid.

 **Lollapalooza** (167): A music festival in Chicago known for setting fashion trends and having lots of drugs.

 **Joni Mitchell** (167): A singer/songwriter known for her innovative use of the guitar, including unique tunings, chords, and a unique fingerpicking/strumming style. 

**Cocaine** (168): A highly addictive drug. It is snorted, smoked, or injected, and while it makes people feel more confident or forget their problems, the highs from it last only up to about 30 minutes, which often drives people to take it more frequently. Side effects (aside from addiction) include a loss of appetite, irritability, and increased mental health issues. 

**Spitfire** (168): Someone with a quick temper or willingness to fight.

 **High as a kite** (169): Someone who’s “high as a kite” is on a lot of drugs and is still enjoying the high.

 **Clean** (169): Drug/alcohol free.

 **Stiff upper lip** (170): Ability to seem determined or hold it together in the face of hard times.

 **A levels** (170): A UK test taken for admittance to college, similar to the ACT/SAT in the US.

 ** _Henry V_ at RSC **(171): Henry V is a Shakespearean history play about the life of Henry V, especially focused on the events of the Hundred Years’ War. RSC, or the Royal Shakespeare Company, is a Shakespeare theater company in London.

 **Travis County** (171): The Texan county where Austin is located.

 **Surfside** (171): A beach in Texas.

 **Adderall** (172): A prescription drug taken for ADHD but commonly abused by students to help them stay awake for all-nighters or focused for unhealthily long study sessions. However, given McQuinston’s claim that Alex has undiagnosed ADHD, it likely helped him to be able to focus and helped his brain work the way it was expected to.

 **Almond milk (vs. dairy)** (173): Texas has a huge dairy industry, and almond milk is not great for the environment.

 **The Gun File** (173): American gun law is so deeply broken.

 **WASPy Hunter’s Harvard pencil cup** (175): Harvard is a prestigious college in Boston; it has a reputation for being mostly rich white folks.

 **Iron curtains of gerrymandering** (175): Gerrymandering is a form of drawing lines for voting districts to disenfranchise marginalized voters. It is a form of skewing elections to keep power in the hands of the powerful that divides marginalized votes, making people of color or poor folks the minority in their districts, therefore erasing their votes on a broader scale.

 **Vision-boarding his funeral** (175): a vision board is typically made to inspire someone to pursue a goal.

 ** _Parks & Recreation_** (175): A popular American sit-com focused on the parks and recreation department in a small town in Indiana. 

**Leslie Knope** (176): a Parks & Rec character. One of her defining traits is an aggressive, overwhelming love for the people in her life.

 **Mid-century rug** (177): Mid-century furniture and style is characterized by lots of color and playful patterns (following the more reserved WWII period in the 1940s); it is rising in popularity again as a classy yet fashionable look.

 ** _J14_** (178): A teen fashion/celebrity magazine.

 ** _Sacramento Bee_** (178): The largest newspaper in Sacramento, CA.

 **Southerness** (180): In positive lights, the American South is known for its genuine, warm, unselfish hospitality.

 **Jane Austen my life** (180): Jane Austen is a British author whose novels star lower/middle class women who fall in love with rich men. They typically try to avoid these men for large portions of the book, or at least have rather negative feelings about them due to a misunderstanding or other failure to communicate.

 **LSAT** (181): the test taken for admittance to law school.

 **Carmarthenshire** (183): A largely agricultural county in South Wales. As a tourist destination, it is known for its wide range of outdoor activities.

 **Llwynywermod** (184): A royal estate in Carmarthenshire, the biggest building of which is a renovated three-bedroom farmhouse. It is surrounded by the rolling green hills common to south Wales.

 **Finals (in the US)** (185): At US colleges, a semester’s final tests (typically worth up to 30-40% of a final grade) take place the week after classes end.

 **Stamp on his forehead at The Tombs** (185): Tombs is a bar near Georgetown. According to reviews, and “Tombs Night” parties, where students celebrate their 21st birthday and get their foreheads stamped at the end of the night, are a Georgetown tradition.

 **Jumped in Dalhgren Fountain** (185): Dalhgren Fountain is in the center of Georgetown’s campus. Swimming in it is a Georgetown tradition.

 **Summa cum laude** (186): “with greatest honor”.

 **Ceviche** (186): A seafood dish native to Peru that spread to Mexico, where it contains lime, avocado, chili peppers, onions, and cilantro.

 **Palm Room** (187): The gateway to the West Wing, the area of the White House where most politics happen.

 **Hoe Dameron** (190): A reference to Star Wars character Poe Dameron, a rebel pilot and the first Latino main character in the series.

 **Prince Buttercup** (190): Princess Buttercup is the heroine/love interest in The Princess Bride, 

**West Hollywood** (190): One of the most prominent gay neighborhoods in the US.

 **“Call Me”** (191): The most popular song of 1980; it was originally written for the film American Gigolo and inspired by the film’s opening sequence of a character driving along the coast of California. 

**“So Emotional”** (191): An absolute bop about enjoying being in love.

 **“Don’t Stop Me Now”** (193): A Queen song where Mercury sings to both a man and a woman; it’s a huge bop.

 **In-N-Out** (194): A fast food restaurant/burger chain native to California and unavailable in other states.

 **Animal style** (195): Animal style burgers are an In-N-Out staple; it includes the typical burger toppings, along with mustard fried into the patty, pickles, onions, and extra spread.

 **French-fries-dipped-in-milkshake** (195): a truly god-tier American dessert tradition.

 **“O captain, my captain”** (196): A reference both to the idea of a lacrosse team captain and to Whitman’s poem, “O Captain, My Captain” (as mentioned above, Whitman was a deeply gay American poet).

 **Burberry** (200): A posh British brand of clothing known for its classy, traditional pieces.

 **Cats that caught the canaries** (200): A cat that caught a canary is a person who looks smug or satisfied.

 **Mother hen** (201): A “mom friend” or someone who will do everything they can to look out for people they care about, sometimes to the point of it being annoying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	8. Chapter 8

**James I** (203): James I/VI (First of England, Sixth of Scotland) is known for both translating the Bible and being just... so, so incredibly gay. The book mentions that he promoted a dumb jock to gentleman of the bedchamber, but it leaves out that 13-year-old James would just make out with dudes in public, and that the dumb jock (George Villers) was James’s third serious adult relationship. His friends introduced him to George because his last boyfriend was bad for the kingdom. 

**George Eliot** (205): Mary Anne Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot to escape the stereotype that women could only write romances. She wrote seven novels, of which _Middlemarch_ is the most famous, known for their realism and psychological insight.

 **Daniel Defoe** (205): A pioneer of the English novel, Defoe wrote _Robinson Crusoe_ as well as a series of divisive political pamphlets and tracts.

 **Jonathan Swift** (205): Irish political writer most famous for _A Modest Proposal_ , a satirical piece that suggests cannibalism of infants as a more humane response to the British treatment of Ireland than letting them grow to starve in adulthood.

**Dickens... “woman who languishes away in a crumbling mansion wearing her wedding gown”** (205): Charles Dickens wrote stories concerned with the lower classes. This quote in particular refers to Miss Havisham from _Great Expectations_ , who was left at the altar and refused to take off her wedding dress or even put away the food set out for the wedding. 

****

****

**_Sense and Sensibility_ **(205): This is probably Austen’s second most popular novel (after Pride and Prejudice); it follows the four Dashwood women in their move to a new home following the death of Mr. Dashwood. Like most of Austen’s novels, the opinionated narrator follows the women through a series of romantic mishaps, culminating in a happy ending.

 **Green American Money** (206): Fun fact, British money is blue and orange and purple and all sorts of fun colors! It also all looks different, because (at least in Scotland) four banks are allowed to print pound notes, so there are four different designs all in circulation.

 **Sean Hannity** (206): A conservative American political commentator.

 **Harvard rowing** (206): Rowing is like... the bougiest of sports.

 **Pleiad** (206): In Greek mythology, the pleiades were the daughters of the titan Atlas who became stars following his entrapment under the earth. They are remembered for their beauty and loyalty. Myths of the missing pleiad explain why only six of the seven stars are visible to the naked eye. According to some sources, the missing pleiad is Merope, who was shamed out of the sky for her relationship with a mortal.

 **Minute Maid Park** (206): The baseball stadium associated with the Houston Astros baseball team; it seats just over 41,000.

 **Politico** (207): An American political opinion news source.

 **Drop-kick Murphys** (208): An American Celtic punk band. 

**The Klan** (209): The Ku Klux Klan, an incredibly racist organization that has been responsible for the lynching of thousands of people of color.

 **Kim Nam-June** (210): Kim Nam-Joon, known as RM or Rap Monster, is the leader and rapper of the K-pop group BTS.

 **Milwaukee** (211): The largest city in and main cultural center of Wisconsin, which is a “swing state”, meaning that it could go either way politically in a national election.

 **Seth Meyers** (211): An American talk show host and comedian whose creatively titled show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, is liberal-leaning. He hosts celebrities and often chats about politics or the news.

 **Clear Crystal Quartz** (211): Apparently the most “iconic” crystal, it is believed to be able to help with clarity and the achievement of goals.

 **Wimbledon** (213): The oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious.

 **Royal Box** (213): The royal box at Wimbledon is a section of the best seats, reserved for royalty and specially invited celebrity/politically powerful guests.

 **David Beckham** (213): A former professional soccer player and current fashion icon known for being hot and wearing nice suits.

 **McQueen** (214): Alexander McQueen was an openly gay British fashion designer who rose from a lower class background to become one of the most famous designers in the world. Though he died in 2010, his brand continues to be known for unconventional fashion shows and theatrical imagery. 

**Dashikis** (215): A colorful, ornate piece of clothing somewhere between a shirt and a tunic originally from West Africa.

 **Orangery** (218): A very large greenhouse or conservatory designed for growing orange trees.

 ** _Woman at her Toilet_** (218): This painting shows a woman in her bedroom putting on her socks with a little dog next to her.

 **Baroque bed*** (218): Baroque art was designed to show off a monarch’s power; it is incredibly extravagant (Versailles is pretty much the iconic Baroque thing; you can see more about it here).

 **The Killers** (219): An American rock band formed in the early 2000s and known for having donated over $1 million to charity. (they did "Mr. Brightside") According to McQuinston’s twitter, the song Henry plays is “When You Were Young”

 **Dred Scott** (219): In the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford case, the US supreme court ruled that the constitution did not extend to or protect Black folks. 

**Nina Simone** (219): An American singer/songwriter/political activist whose music spanned a variety of genres and whose activism focused largely on the civil rights movement and was largely influenced by her “friend” Lorraine Hansberry, a Black lesbian playwright. (You know Hozier’s “Nina Cried Power”? She’s Nina)

 **Otis Redding** (219): Considered one of the greatest singers in American pop music and was one of the foundational soul artists in the US.

 **Brahms** (219): A German composer known for sticking to more classical forms of music while his contemporaries often leaned toward more dramatic or opulent styles.

 **Wagner**** (219): A German composer who wrote both the music and the librettos for his operas; his works tend to be very complex, and he has been credited with beginning modern music.

 **Romantic** (219): Artistically, the Romantic movement was a direct response to industrialization that called for a return to and celebration of nature. Queerness was very much a part of this movement, as it was seen as a return to or celebration of one’s natural state (think Byron).

 **War of the Romantics** (219): A music history term used to describe the split between conservative composers like Brahms who wanted to stick with the Baroque, opulent styles of the past century and radical progressive composers like Liszt, who favored newer styles that blended music with narrative and morals.

 **Liszt** (219): A Hungarian composer known for a diverse body of work and his position as the leader of the radical progressive group in the War of the Romantics.

 **Alexander Scriabin** (219): Russian composer known for his atonal or dissonant music.

 **Elton John’s “Your Song”** (219): A song written before Elton John came out, but with his queerness in mind. In a 2013 interview, John referred to it as “a perfect song”, and that the lyrics (written by Bernie Taupin) got even better as he got older and sang it more.

 **Consecrated** (220): made holy.

 **DNC** (221): The Democratic national conference, when members of the Democratic (liberal) party get together to prepare for a presidential race.

 **College Republicans of Vanderbilt University** (221): Vanderbilt University is a private (and therefore more expensive) school in Nashville, Tennessee. Its location in the South and its price tag would both mark it as being more conservative.

 **Cage match** (221): A type of wrestling match that takes place inside a steel cage; the most common way of winning is by escaping the cage, usually by climbing over the top.

 **Paul Ryan** (222): A conservative retired politician and former Speaker of the House.

 **The Second Amendment** (222): The second amendment grants Americans the right to bear arms (have guns).

 **Salon** (222): An American news and opinion website with a politically liberal editorial stance.

 **Air Force One** (222): the president’s plane

 **“My Canadian girlfriend”** (223): A running joke that someone (often a high schooler) whose partner goes to another school or lives somewhere else is made up.

 **Five Guys** (225): Five Guys Burger and Fries is a popular fast food burger chain across the US.

 **Vampire Weekend** (225): An American indie rock band.

 **The general** (226): the general election in November, when Americans would vote for their president

 **Plainclothes** (226): out of uniform

 **The Beekman** (226): A very fancy hotel in Lower Manhattan, near the Brooklyn Bridge.

 **NATO** (233): the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries.

\----

*every time I read this, I flinch just a little bit. Baroque architecture is just... so much, and the concept of a Baroque bed when beds/bedrooms are supposed to be simple to help you rest... It’s just so much and I hate it with all of my being. I’m sorry if you like Baroque furniture, but especially for Henry, who dreams of a simple life where he can just write and be anonymous... It’s a big yikes.

** Literally no one asked, but his stuff is just... it’s so boring? Like I’m sure it’s great to fall asleep to or calm down to, but I tried to listen to it while I wrote this and I just couldn’t. Liszt is better, but he’s no Mozart. Also? Mozart wrote BOPS. ONLY. “The Birdcatcher’s Song” slaps and no one can change my mind on that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're over half way done! If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	9. Chapter 9

**Too close to the sun** (239): A reference to the myth of Icarus; his father built him wings so that they could escape from a tower they were trapped in. Upon gaining his freedom for the first time in years, Icarus celebrated by flying as high as he could. The sun melted the wax on his wings, and they fell apart, leaving him to plummet to his death.

 **Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens** (239): Alexander Hamilton was an American politician, and John Laurens was a revolutionary fighter and abolitionist. Every biography of either of them is like “yeah wow they sure were GOOD FRIENDS” or “They had a ROMANTIC FRIENDSHIP” (an actual phrase I just read). 

**Chernow’s biography** (240): The most popular biography of Alexander Hamilton; the one that the 2016 musical Hamilton is based on. He concludes that “at the very least, we can say that Hamilton developed something like an adolescent crush on his friend”.

 **King George III** (242): The king against whom the American colonies revolted.

 **Eliza** (243): Eliza Schuyler Hamilton was Alexander Hamilton’s wife. The pair absolutely adored each other, and according to at least one of Hamilton’s letters to Laurens, she was conscious of and completely alright with their relationship (and also maybe down for a three-way).

 **Allen Ginsberg to a Peter Orlovsky** (245): Allen Ginsberg was an American poet of the Beat movement, which was characterized by a dissatisfaction with 1950s America. Peter Orlovsky was an actor and took up poetry after beginning his open relationship with Ginsberg. The pair continued this relationship until Ginsberg’s death in 1997.

 **Henry James to Hendrix C. Andersen*** (247): Henry James was an American/British writer whose works often explore the contrast and overlap between those two cultures. Hendrix C. Andersen a sculptor (known for a sculpture of Jacob, um... “wrestling” an angel). The two met in Rome in 1899, and James immediately bought a bust sculpted by Andersen, which he placed above his mantle, declaring “I shall have him constantly before me as a loved companion and friend”.

 **“Loco in Acapulco”** (248): A 1988 song by the Four Tops about partying in Acapulco, a Mexican beach city.

 **Chambray** (249): Chambray is a fabric native to South France, it is lightweight and made of a weave of light colored and white threads.

 **“Here You Come Again”** (249): A 1977 country/pop song recorded/performed by Dolly Parton, about a lover coming back into her life. 

**“Summertime”** (249): A DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince hip-hop song from 1991 about how summer is a break from the hectic rest of the world.

 **45** (249): Texas State Highway 45 runs in a loop around Austin.

 **Mexican Coke** (250): Coca-Cola made in Mexico is typically made with cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, and many believe that gives it a more natural taste.

 **Lake LBJ** (250): The history behind this lake is pretty well covered in the book, but it is popular for boating and water skiing because of its normally constant water level (meaning it is not significantly impacted by things like rainfall or other weather issues). 

**“Jumbo”**** (250): LBJ apparently had a sizeable “little” friend. He tried to have the White House shower altered so to have a stream shooting directly onto it. He would show it to people all the time. He asked to have his pants tailored to accommodate it. 

**Henry VIII***** (250): Henry VIII is a British king best known for taking six wives, most of whom he either killed or divorced after they failed to give birth to sons. He invented the Church of England so that he could legally divorce his first wife and it went downhill from there. 

**Strawberry daiquiris** (250): A strawberry daiquiri is a mix of rum, sugar, and citrus. They are often frozen and are a popular summer drink.

 **Hacienda school of home decor** (251): “Hacienda” is the Spanish word for an estate; this style is typically defined by high ceilings, open, arched doorways, and sprawling floor plans. “Hacienda” homes are associated with Mexico and the Southwest United States, and are generally designed as cozy outdoor/indoor spaces.

 **Pemberton Heights** (252): One of Austin’s wealthiest and most historic neighborhoods.

 **Chente** (252): Vincente ”Chente” Fernández Gómez is a Mexican actor and musician known as “El Rey de la Música Ranchera" (The King of Ranchera Music). He started his career playing for tips on the street, but has since risen to stardom. 

**Cotija and crema** (253): Cotija is a Mexican cheese, and Mexican crema is a thickened cream often used as a topping for Mexican foods. 

**Elotes** (253): Elote, or Mexican street corn, is a popular summer dish made with sweet corn covered in crema, cotija, chili powder, and a variety of other toppings.

 **Candy-ass** (254): A wimp or person who’s not especially tough.

 **“Not bad for a European”** (254): The general stereotype in the US is that European folks, especially English folks, are generally smart, but not very tough.

 **Santa Maria** (256): Saint Mary, the mother of Jesus and greatest of all Catholic saints.

 **Tamales with salsa verde** (256): Tamales are a Mexican dish made of a corn dough wrapped and steamed in corn husks, and salsa verde is a tomatillo-based salsa. Tamales are often made with help from an assembly line of family members. 

**Frijoles charros** (256): Frijoles charros, or “cowboy beans”, are a Mexican dish made of pinto beans stewed with onions, garlic, bacon, and other elements such as meat, peppers, tomatoes, and cilantro.

 **Sangria** (256): An alcoholic beverage from Spain made of red wine mixed with fruit.

 **Johnny Cash** (256): An American musician who began his career as a country singer, but branched out into rock and gospel as well. He was known for his humility and his free prison concerts, and for context within the book, June is named after his wife. 

**Selena** (256): Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was a Mexican-American singer/ songwriter/ model/ spokesperson who is known for catapulting Tejano or Tex-Mex music into the mainstream. 

**Fleetwood Mac** (256): Fleetwood Mac is a British-American pop rock band formed in 1967.

 **“Annie’s Song”** (256): A John Denver song written as an ode to his wife; she described it as “a love song [that] became a bit of a prayer”. 

**Chile de árbol** (257): A small, potent chili native to Mexico.

 **Jazz brunch** (258): A brunch with a jazz trio playing in the background. They’re typically associated with older folks on vacation.

 **Migas** (262): Mexican migas is a traditional breakfast dish made of a crispy tortilla with scrambled eggs on top. The Tex-Mex variation includes extra ingredients like onions, peppers, tomatoes, cheese, or salsa.

 **The heir and the spare** (263): This refers to the idea that a king should have at least two sons: one to be the heir to his throne, and a backup “spare” to keep the kingdom from a succession war in case that first died. 

\------

*Fun fact; Hendrik Andersen is related to Hans Christian Andersen (the fairy tale author), who was also queer!

** I now know... far too much about this.

*** The musical Six gives each wife a stage to voice their side of the story, and it’s very good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! Also, you may have noticed I've added a couple chapters to this. Hannah, you say, how can you add more chapters? The book only has fifteen. I'm so glad you asked. I've been writing little analytical pieces on Tumblr, and I'll be adding them here as well!  
> -  
> As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	10. Chapter 10

**Earl Grey** (267): Earl Grey tea is an incredibly common caffeinated tea. It is the base of a London fog. 

**Hamilton to Laurens, “you should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent”** (267): This quote is from an April 1779 letter and is immediately followed by “But, as you have done it, and as we are generally indulgent to those we love, I shall not scruple to pardon the fraud you have committed, on one condition; that for my sake, of not your own, you will always continue to merit the partiality, which you have so artfully instilled into me”. Essentially, “you were rude to me, but I love you so much I forgive you as long as you look after yourself”. Just before it, Hamilton’s like “you taught me what it means to love”. (You can find it [here](https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-02-02-0100#ARHN-01-02-02-0100-fn-0003)) 

**Pyramus and Thisbe** (268): The pair of lovers whose story inspired Romeo and Juliet, they were separated and could only talk through a wall between their houses (I’ve written a very in-depth analysis of this myth, which you can find [here](https://hms-chill.tumblr.com/post/611856691413270528/pyramus-and-thisbe-alex-and-henry)).

 **Dulles International to Heathrow** (268): Dulles International is the airport in Washington, DC, and Heathrow is the classy airport in London.

 **John Cusack** (270): An American actor largely known for his roles in the 1980s. This line in particular likely references _Say Anything..._ , a romantic comedy known in part for a scene where Cusack’s character stands outside a girl’s window and plays music from a boombox.

 **Y’all had to marry your cousins** (270): A reference to the royal tradition of only marrying other royals, which led to a whole lot of inbreeding.

 **Consummation** (275): To consummate a marriage is to have sex for the first time, therefore making it “official”. 

**Wilde’s complete works** (276): Oscar Wilde is an Irish author famous for writing satires and also defining gay culture in the late 1800s.

 **Fit of pique** (277): If someone does something in a fit of pique, they do it spontaneously and out of anger at being wronged.

 **Mr. Darcy brooding at Pemberley** (278): In Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (spoilers, though it’s been out for 207 years), after Elizabeth rejects Darcy’s first marriage proposal (which is essentially “your family sucks but you’re hot; marry me”), he goes back to the house his family owns and thinks about it and misses her.

 **Anmer Hall** (278): A house owned by the Crown in Norfolk, England; it is currently home to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

 **Mel and Sue** (280): A comedy duo and hosts of The Great British Bake Off. Sue was outed in 2002, but claims that “being a lesbian is only about the 47th most interesting thing about me”.

 **South Kensington** (284): A district of West London known for its high density of museums and cultural landmarks.

 **Prince Consort Road** (284): Prince Consort Road is a street in London named after Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria. A consort is a royal’s spouse or partner (hence Alex laughing at the idea of his being a prince’s consort)

 **Ferris Bueller/ Sloane** (284-285): Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a popular movie from the 1980s about Ferris, who skips school for a day of wild shenanigans in Chicago. Sloane is his girlfriend who’s roped in for the ride. 

**Victoria and Albert Museum*** (285): The Victoria and Albert Museum, often abbreviated “V&A”, is the world’s largest museum of applied and decorative art and design. (you can explore their collections [here](https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections?type=featured))

 **Renaissance City** (285): Room 50a of the V&A is full of Renaissance sculptures. (photo [here](https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=victoria+and+albert+museum+renaissance+city#id=E86064635376A1A455823E348554A5E8D49D4ED4)) 

**Seated Buddha in black stone** (285): The V&A has a bunch of Buddha sculptures, but [this one](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O64621/sculpture-seated-buddha-unknown/) is the only one I saw that’s in black stone.

 **John the Baptist nude and in bronze** (285): Possibly [this](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O70439/st-john-the-baptist-statue-rodin-auguste/) piece from 1881 by French sculptor Auguste Rodin and is in the V&A’s collection.

 **Tipu’s Tiger** (285): A nearly life-sized semi-automaton that shows a tiger mauling a man in European clothes. The tiger makes growling sounds and the man screams and waves his hand when a handle on the side is turned; it also contains a small pipe organ on the inside and was created to show the power that the Tipu Sultan of India held over invading Brits. The “give it back” that Catherine argues for is officially called repatriation, it would mean that (Western) museums have to give back stolen objects; British museums are famously bad at doing this. (see Tipu’s Tiger [here](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O61949/tippoos-tiger-mechanical-organ-unknown/))

 **Westminster** (286): Westminster Abbey, a church in London where royals are crowned and buried. It is covered with intricate carvings and beautiful stained glass.

 **The Great Bed of Ware** (286): A bed made by Hans Vredeman de Vries from the 1590s; it is ten feet wide and made of oak. (see it [here](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9138/great-bed-of-ware-bed-vredeman-de-vries/))

 ** _Twelfth Night_** (286): A Shakespeare comedy full of chaos that includes a woman cross-dressing, then her twin brother being mistaken for her.

 ** _Epocoene_** (286): A 1609 play that includes a boy dressing as a woman to dupe a man into giving his son an acceptable inheritance.

 ** _Don Juan_** (286): A Spanish figure known for his powers for wooing women; the first text published about him was in the 1630s.

 **Florence** (287): Florence is a city known for its art; it was the cultural center of the Italian renaissance.

 **Gothic choir screen in the V &A’s Renaissance City** (287): [This](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O103046/faith-roodloft-van-norenberch-coenraed/) Roodloft, or choir screen, carved by Coenraed van Norenberch is in the back of the Renaissance City in the V&A. It’s a stunning piece; the link above has great pictures and a more in-depth description than I could give.

 **Zephyr statue by Francavilla** (287): You can see this statue [here](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O125147/zephyr-statue-francavilla-pietro/); it was one of thirteen statues commissioned for the garden of a villa near Florence. According to Greek mythology, Zephyr (the west wind) was married to Chloris, goddess of flowers.

 **Narcissus (by Cioli)** (287): [This](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O70453/narcissus-statue-cioli-valerio/) statue may have once been the centerpiece to a fountain with Narcissus looking into an actual pool; it depicts him in the moment he sees and is mesmerised by his reflection.

 **Pluto stealing Proserpina** (287): Likely the statue “The Rape of Proserpina” by Vincenzo de' Rossi. I couldn’t find it on the V&A’s site, but there’s more info [here](https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMHVBD_Pluto_Proserpina_Victoria_Albert_Museum_London_UK).

 **Jason with the Golden Fleece** (287): This is a sculpture of a very naked Jason, the Greek hero who stole the golden fleece. He was helped by its owner’s daughter, who was in love with him, but whom he later abandoned. You can see the statue [here](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O14772/jason-statue-unknown/).

 **Samson Slaying a Philistine** (287): You can see this statue [here](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O14761/samson-slaying-a-philistine-figure-group-giambologna/). Henry does a pretty good job of explaining the incredible history behind it; all I have to add from my (limited) research is that it is remarkable in part for the fact that there is no one point on it that draws the eye-- it demands to be looked at completely or not at all.

 **Victoria and sodomy laws** (288): Queen Victoria famously instituted a whole lot of anti-sodomy laws.

 **Viau on James/George** (288): A 1623 poem by Théophile de Viau:

“Apollo with his songs

Debauched young Hyacinthus

Just as Corydon fucked Amyntas,

So Caesar did not spurn boys.

One man fucks Monsieur le Grand de Bellegarde [a friend of Viau],

Another fucks the Comte de Tonnerre.

And it is well known that the King of England

Fucks the Duke of Buckingham.”

 **“Christ had John, and I have George”** (288): This is an actual thing that James I/VI said to the heads of the church. Here’s the full quote, from wikipedia: “I, James, am neither a god nor an angel, but a man like any other. Therefore I act like a man and confess to loving those dear to me more than other men. You may be sure that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else, and more than you who are here, assembled. I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had John, and I have George.”

 **George III** (289): George III was the king against whom the American colonies revolted. He was deeply religious and instituted laws declaring that royals could not marry without the approval of the court.

 **Convent church of Santa Chiara in Florence** (290): This church is no longer a church, but the altar chapel is in an alcove in the V&A. It is the only Italian Renaissance chapel outside of Italy. (you can see photos of it [here](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O17758/chancel-chapel-from-church-of-chapel/) and [here](http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-no.-5-2013/sacred-space-in-the-modern-museum-researching-and-redisplaying-the-santa-chiara-chapel-in-the-v-and-as-medieval-and-renaissance-galleries/))

 **Santa Chiara and Saint Francis of Assisi** (290): Saint Francis of Assisi founded a few different monastic orders and is one of the most celebrated saints; Saint Clare of Assisi founded a women’s monastic order and wrote the first set of monastic guidelines by a woman.

 **Blessed Mother** (290): Mary, the mother of Jesus, one of the holiest figures in Catholicism.

 **“Come, hijo mío, de la miel, porque es Buena, and the honeycomb sweet to thy taste”**** (290): “My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off” -- Proverbs 24:13-14, King James Version (yes, that King James. He translated the Bible to make the church stop hating him). 

**David and Jonathan** (290): An aggressively gay couple from the Bible who have been presented as friends for centuries. Jonathan was a prince and David a shepherd, but God promised that David would be king one day. Rather than argue this or hate David for it, Jonathan welcomed David into his household and loved him despite the prophecy that he would one day usurp him. Following Jonathan’s death, David took in Jonathan’s son and looked after him. 

**Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen** (291): Many Christian prayers end with “in the name of the Father, the son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen”. It’s a way of celebrating the god who gives you all of the good things in your life while also giving up control to them.

\------

A fill in from chapter 2, as requested by Altocleflife: 

**Deputy Chief of Staff** (Zahra’s position, 23): The Deputy Chief of Staff is the top aide to the president’s top aide, and is responsible for ensuring that everything runs smoothly within the bureaucracy of the White House. 

\------

*This museum puts out books called “maker’s guides” that teach you how to make pieces based on things in their collections; they’re super duper cool.

**I’m not a theologian, but I am a pastor’s kid, and just... this gets me. This whole bit, but this Proverb especially. Like obviously there’s the “oh we’re kissing and I’m thinking about honey tasting sweet”, but verse 14 coming in with the “when you’ve found what’s right, you will be rewarded with the confidence of that rightness and you will have hope”? Just kill me outright next time. Don’t make me google my own murder weapon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know!  
> Also, I hate hyperlinking in html, so please let me know if links aren't working here.  
> As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	11. Chapter 11

**Franklin Barbecue** (293): A barbecue restaurant in Austin that has sold out of brisket every day it’s been open. It moved from a trailer to a brick and mortar store in 2011 and has been named one of the fifty best barbecue places in the world.

 **Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf*** (293): Vita Sackville-West was a poet and Virginia Woolf was a novelist and essayist in the early 1900s. Both were openly queer; Vita had previously run off to France with a girlfriend. Additionally, they were both married, but were in open relationships. (you can read about them in Nigel Nicholson’s (Vita’s son’s) _A Portrait of a Marriage_ ; which is a essentially Vita’s journals and letters. Alternately, Woolf’s _Orlando_ is essentially a love letter to Vita.) 

**_Jane Eyre_** (294): A gothic Charlotte Brontë novel that includes a woman who has been locked in her husband’s attic and goes mad.

 **St. Kilda** (294): An isolated archipelago on the northwest coast of Scotland. 

**Thoughts and prayers** (294): The phrase American politicians use to avoid doing things.

 **Scruffy-looking nerf herder** (295): In _The Empire Strikes Back_ , Leia calls Han Solo a “stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy looking nerf herder”.

 **Radclyffe Hall to Evguenia Souline** (295): Madame Radclyffe Hall was a poet and novelist best known for _The Well of Loneliness_ , which was deemed obscene for the lines “she kissed her full on the lips, as a lover" and “and that night, they were not divided”, despite its plea: "Give us also the right to our existence". Though she was in a long-term relationship with Una Troubridge, she began dating Evguenia Souline in 1934, which Troubridge tolerated.

 **Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickock** (297): Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and first lady of the US, and Lorena Hickock was a reporter. In 1928, Hickock was assigned to interview Roosevelt by her editors and she convinced them to allow her to follow Roosevelt for the rest of the election cycle. 

**Silver maple** (300): A silver maple tree is one of the most common in North America; its sap is used to make maple syrup and it is apparently known as the tree of tolerance.

 **Waterloo vase** (300): The Waterloo Vase is a 15-foot tall marble vase. It was passed from collection to collection because it was too heavy for any floor to support.

 **Yellow ipê-amarelo** (300): the ipê-amarelo is a bright yellow flowering tree native to Brazil.

 **Michelangelo to Tommaso Cavalieri** (301): Michelangelo was a painter and sculptor during the Italian Renaissance, and Thommaso Cavalleri was a Roman nobleman. 

**Hail Mary’s** (302): A traditional Catholic prayer that asks for Mary’s help.

 **Muchas gracias, Santa Maria** (302): “many thanks, St. Mary”

 **Alex writing a list** (302): You know how Alex grew up making lists to deal with his stress? And now he’s making a list of things he loves about Henry? Yeah.

 **Keats** (303): John Keats was a British Romantic poet, and though I couldn’t find scholarly proof that he was gay, I did find rumors of it. He was part of debatably the gayest movement in literary history and has been adopted by the queer+ community as a gay icon.

 **Bernadette’s “don’t let it drag you down” monologue from _Priscilla, Queen of the Desert_** (303): _The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert_ is a movie about two drag queens and a trans woman driving a lavender van across the Australian desert toward Sydney to perform their cabaret show. 

The monologue: “It’s funny. We all sit around mindlessly slagging off that vile stink-hole of a city. But in its own strange way, it takes care of us. I don’t know if that ugly wall of suburbia’s been put there to stop them getting in, or us getting out. Come on. Don’t let it drag you down. Let it toughen you up. I can only fight because I’ve learnt to. Being a man one day and a woman the next isn’t an easy thing to do.”

 **Richard Wagner and Ludwig II** (304): As addressed in the book, Wagner was a composer. Ludwig II was his patron, a king known for his enormous castles and neo-gothic versions of Versailles. 

——

*I could talk about Vita and Virginia for so long omg. I love them so much. Also Virginia’s husband makes me so emotional y’all have no idea I adore this man.  
\----  
As a bonus, here's the digitized version of the book I've been referencing for the context of the gay love letters! It's such a cool source and I'm so happy it's digitized! Here it is: http://www.rictornorton.co.uk/dearboy.htm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know!  
> Also, I hate hyperlinking in html, so please let me know if links aren't working here.  
> As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	12. Chapter 12

**Pittsburgh** (305): A large city in Pennsylvania, which is a swing state (one which could go either way in a presidential election).

 **Cedar Rapids*** (306): A pretty liberal city in Iowa, another swing state (remember that vine of Hillary Clinton “just chillin’ in Cedar Rapids”? Or was that just popular in Iowa?).

 **Solange** (307): An American singer/songwriter, younger sister to Beyonce.

 **Be a gay beard** (307): A gay beard is a woman who dates a gay man in order to help him “pass” as straight.

 **Colin Firth** (308): English actor known for his role in Pride and Prejudice (1995) and Mamma Mia!

 **Buzzfeed** (308): A pop culture news site known for its list-style articles.

 **Fox News** (309): A deeply, deeply conservative (to the point of being genuinely untrustworthy) news source.

 **Jumbo Slice** (310): A pizza place in DC known for its massive slices of pizza.

 ** _The Symposium_** (313): Plato’s Symposium is a series of dialogues about the nature of love. One (by Pausanias) attributes heavenly love only to male homosexual relationships, but the more relevant one (by Aristophanes) describes a myth in which Zeus cut humans in half, leaving them to wander the earth literally in search of their other half.

 **Plato** (314): An ancient Greek philosopher and author of _The Symposium_.

 **The 101** (314): US Route 101 is the longest highway in California.

 **N.W.A.** (314): The hip-hop group who popularized the gangsta rap subgenre and are celebrated in _Straight Outta Compton_.

 **Maker’s** (314): Maker’s Mark is a popular bourbon that is 45% alcohol.

 **Marlboros** (315): A cigarette brand known in part for promoting the idea that smoking is masculine with their popular “Marlboro Man” ad campaign.

 **Boulder** (316): A decent sized, very liberal city in Colorado.

 **Sherpa** (317): The Sherpa people live on the southern slopes of the Himalayas in eastern Nepal and are known for providing help to foreign travelers and mountaineers.

 **Salud** (318): The Spanish word for “health”, a common toast.

 **La Rosaria** (319): Spanish for “the Rosary”, a Catholic string of beads where each bead represents a portion of a prayer related to the life of Jesus or Mary.

 **Sacrosanct** (320): most sacred or holy.

 **Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon**** (320): Owen and Sassoon were British poets who met in a hospital while recovering from shell shock in World War I. When they parted after a few months in 1917, Sassoon handed Owen an envelope with £10 and the London address of Oscar Wilde's lover Robert Ross. They remained close until Owen’s death only one week before the end of WWI. 

**Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais** (321): Cocteau was an incredibly prolific avant-garde writer whose work was immediately popular in queer circles and was adopted by the Gay Liberation movement. Jean Marais was an actor in one of Cocteau’s films. They lived together for nine years and remained close for the rest of their lives.

 **DEFCON 5** (323): DEFCON, or the Defense Readiness Condition is an alert state used by the US military, with levels ranging from five (the lowest) to one (nukes in the air).

 **Swing state** (324): A state that, in a political election, could go to either candidate.

\------

*This is so close to where I live! I saw _Next to Normal_ and _Now. Here. This._ at Theater Cedar Rapids! It made me so happy to see it referenced!

** I... I would love to talk more about Owen and Sassoon, but the problem is that every time I read Owen’s stuff or research him or anything I get emotional? They were just... so close to being able to make it work. And after Owen’s death, Sassoon was the one to compile and publish his poems, but in the end he confessed “W's death was an unhealed wound, & the ache of it has been with me ever since. I wanted him back – not his poems.” But also! Their letters! One of them Owen is like “I almost got court martialed because people thought I was sleeping with these girls because they liked me because I speak their language lmao”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know!  
> Also, I hate hyperlinking in html, so please let me know if links aren't working here.  
> As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	13. Chapter 13

**Washington** (327): George Washington, general who led the colonial army during the American Revolution and has been elevated to a nearly mythic leader in American popular ideology.

 **The general** (327): The general election, when the American people vote for their president.

 **Travis County** (328): The Texan county where Austin is.

 **White House Press Secretary** (329): The spokesperson for the executive (presidential) branch of the US government.

 **WikiLeaks** (329): A nonprofit/website that publishes leaked documents from anonymous sources, typically things related to politics.

 **Gulf of Mexico** (332): The body of water that Texas borders.

 **"At war, in a muddy trench, love letter soaking red in his chest pocket”** (332): The mention of trenches in particular evoke World War I, a war that felt generally pointless and left many feeling disillusioned. Sure is fun how this chapter fills with war imagery after they’re outed, huh?

 ** _Prisoner of Azkaban_** (334): The third Harry Potter book, where we are introduced to Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, characters who Henry canonically believes are gay.

 **Mercurial temper** (336): “Mercurial: characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood” - Merriam Webster

 **FSOTUS** (337): First Son of the United States (Alex’s official title).

 **Scorched-earth** (337): A military policy (remember that war imagery?) to destroy anything that might be useful for opposing troops.

 **Anne Boleyn** (338): Second wife to King Henry VIII.

 **Kneecapped** (339): A form of injury often used as torture. Typically, the victim is shot in the knee pit with a low-velocity handgun.

 **Wetzel’s pretzel** (339): Wetzel’s Pretzels are a soft pretzel stand common in airports.

 **B12** (339): A vitamin that the human body doesn’t produce, so we get it from the food we eat or supplements. 

**“Bit short for a stormtrooper”** (340): Leia’s first words to Luke, when he comes to rescue her from captivity in A New Hope.

 **Autoharp** (341): An instrument in the zither family; it looks vaguely like a piano crossed with a harp or a guitar. The chord bars, controlled by buttons along the bottom, mute every string except those needed for the chord, and the strings are strummed or plucked. 

**“I, I will be king, and you, you will be Queen"** (342): This is from “Heroes” by David Bowie.

 **Hoping the sandbags will hold** (342): When faced with a flood, one of the most common ways of protecting a building is to stack bags of sand up in a temporary wall to hold back the water. Stacking them is usually a communal endeavor, but once they’re up, all you can do is hope.

 **Sobriety chip** (343): A small coin often given to people in recovery to mark the amount of time they’ve been sober. 

**Sponsor** (343): Typically someone who has been through a recovery program (such as Narcotics Anonymous) and helps guide a person or group in their own recovery.

 **Recalcitrant** (344): obstinately defiant of authority.

 **Duchess of Cambridge** (346): The position held by an oldest prince’s spouse. 

**Abdicate** (346): Abdication is the act of giving up the throne. Historically, only Edward VIII has abdicated willingly; he did so to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson (also, they were Nazis. This isn’t an Alex/Henry parallel; just want to clarify that). Currently, abdication is only possible with Parliament’s permission. (also, from what I’ve found, Harry and Megan didn’t abdicate.)

 **Baby** (348): You know how this is Henry’s favorite pet name from Alex? And how it’s what his mom calls him? Yeah. 

**The mall in front of Buckingham Palace** (355): An open space in front of Buckingham Palace, a common place for tourist photos. 

**Tories in Kensington** (356): The Tories are a conservative British political party; Kensington here refers to the Kensington Parliamentary Constituency.

 **Labour** (356): A liberal party in British politics.

 **“Never tell me the odds”** (358): A Han Solo quote, after being told that their odds of successfully flying through an asteroid field are 3,720:1.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know!  
> Also, I hate hyperlinking in html, so please let me know if links aren't working here.  
> As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	14. Chapter 14

**_Jezebel_** (359): Jezebel calls itself “a supposedly feminist website”; they are a blog geared toward women

 **Dykes on Bikes** (359): Dykes on Bikes is a philanthropic organization focused on building community of women motorcyclists and supporting LGBT+ organizations.

 **Westboro Baptist Church** (359): A church famous for being homophobic and doing pretty much exactly what Jesus said not to do.

 **Pennsylvania Avenue** (359): The street that the White House is on.

 **Green** (359): Someone who’s green is fresh or young and naive 

**The House** (360): The House of Representatives is one of two branches of Congress.

 **Speaker** (360): The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives. 

**X-wings** (360): The ships flown by rebel pilots in the original Star Wars movies.

 ** _Vogue_** (360): Vogue is one of the biggest fashion magazines in the US.

 **Decathlon** (361): A track event composed of ten different events.

 **Oval Room** (362): The White House’s Yellow Oval Room is on the south side of the White House’s second floor; it has been used as a library, study, and reception room.

 **Bluebonnet** (362): The state flower of Texas; they bloom all along the roadways in the spring.

 **Barracuda** (362): A Barracuda is a large, predatory fish known for being ferocious. It is also a 1977 song by rock band Heart.

 **Keds** (362): A brand of classy sneakers.

 **Resolute Desk** (362): The president’s desk in the Oval Office.

 **“Four, on the other couch: Alex, counting”** (362): You know what Alex does to calm down when he’s in minor panic mode? He makes lists.

 **Oval Office** (363): The president’s office.

 **Sockpuppet account** (364): An account that isn’t linked to a real person.

 **RNC** (364): The Republican National Committee, the committee that leads the conservative American political party.

 **Not paying for Bigfoot sightings** (365): A reference to the fact that most photos of Bigfoot are blurry or indistinct.

 **Subpoena** (365): A document that demands that someone present evidence to a court.

 **Red Bull** (366): An energy drink.

 **Weed gummy** (366): A gummy with marijuana in it, often used to help someone calm down.

 **Five Guys** (367): Five Guys Burgers and Fries is a popular burger/fry place.

 **A1 Sauce** (367): A type of steak sauce.

 **“Bills, Bills, Bills”** (367): A very popular Destiny’s Child song complaining about a man who refuses to work/do his part in the relationship. 

**NYU** (368): New York University

 **Casper Mattresses** (369): A mattress brand that often sponsors episodes of podcasts.

 **Diplomatic Reception Room** (370): A room used to receive foreign diplomats on the south side of the White House (just below the Oval Room).

 **Fireside chats** (370): A series of radio talks from president Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933-1944. He spoke directly to the American people with familiarity, explaining his policies and the course of WWII.

 **October 2** (371): The Bill of Rights was first sent to the US states on October 2nd, 1789. The Twilight Zone premiered on October 2nd, 1959. Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African American supreme court justice on October 2nd, 1967.

 **Purple silk** (372): Purple was historically the color of royalty, as purple dye was the most expensive.

 **American Dream** (373): The idea that if someone works hard enough in America, they can succeed.

 **Jack loved Jackie** (374): John Franklin “Jack” Kennedy and his wife, Jackie Kennedy.

 **Lyndon loved Lady Bird** (374): Lyndon B Johnson (who Lake LBJ is named for) and Lady Bird Johnson were a president and first lady.

 **Inauguration Day** (375): The day in January when the new president is sworn in and officially takes office.

 **Mall** (375): The National Mall is a park in DC between the Lincoln and Washington monuments. It’s where MLK’s March on Washington ended.

 **Sam the Eagle** (375): Sam Eagle is a muppet known for his extreme patriotism.

 **AG** (377): Attorney General, the head of the department of justice.

 **Undocumented** (378): Someone who is undocumented is in the US without the appropriate documentation and is at risk of being deported if they are discovered.

 **Nicotine patch** (381): A patch that provides people with nicotine, used to help quit smoking.

 **Queen’s Bedroom** (383): A room on the second floor of the White House, formerly known as the rose room. It’s almost entirely light pink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know!  
> Also, I hate hyperlinking in html, so please let me know if links aren't working here.  
> As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	15. Chapter 15

**Kensington gardens*** (386): The park behind Kensington palace.

 **Hampton Court Palace** (386): A London palace that is made up of both domestic Tutor and foreign Baroque styles.

 **Hyde Park** (386): A large park in London.

 **Harrods** (387): A fancy department store in London.

 **Long Water** (388): A recreational lake in Kensington gardens.

 **Cullen skink** (388): A thick Scottish soup made of smoked haddock, potatoes, and onions.

 **Maiden voyage** (389): A ship’s maiden voyage is its first time out of port; as a term a maiden voyage is the start of something big.

 **Wellington boots** (391): Any type of rubber boots.

 **Poison oak** (392): A weed that grows in the woods and can cause a rash.

 **Swan song** (393): A last effort or performance given before retirement

 **Punt so hard** (393): Punt is a football term, but in this case, it means to play it safe rather than taking a risk for a potentially much larger payoff. 

**Rebecca Traister** (396): An American writer known for her feminist, political work.

 **Roxane Gay** (396): An American writer and professor whose work deals with race, feminism, and sexuality.

 **Captain America-esque** (396): A superhero who, even before becoming a superhero, picked street fights with “bullies” and pretty much anyone he sees taking advantage of someone else.

 ** _Hello! US_** (398): A celebrity/royal news magazine.

 **Linoleum floor** (399): Linoleum is an inexpensive, hardy flooring option common in community centers, schools, and other high-traffic areas that are generally unconcerned with looking nice.

 **Blue** (400): the color associated with the Democratic (liberal) party.

 **Zilker Park** (400): The most popular park in Austin, the hub for many recreational activities and the start of popular hiking and biking trails.

 **VRA in ‘65** (401): The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

 **Palmer Event Center** (401): A large event center in central Austin.

 **Girl-next-door** (401): A term for a girl who is idolized as sweet; one you grew up near and maybe had a crush on.

 **Dallas to Austin** (402): While it takes ~30 minutes to fly from Dallas to Austin, it takes ~2 hours and 30 minutes to drive.

 **Protestant God** (403): The Republican party is often associated with steadfast Christianity, despite actively doing things that the Bible condemns.

 **Super Bowl** (404): The biggest football game of the year.

 **Obama v. McCain** (404): The 2008 presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain, when Democrat Barack Obama became the first African American president of the US.

 **Letterman jacket** (405): A letterman jacket is awarded to a high school athlete who has made varsity or been on a team for a certain amount of time.

 **APUSH** (405): Advanced placement US history, a US history course taken for college credit while in high school.

 **Anderson Cooper** (406): Openly gay journalist and TV anchor for CNN.

 **CNN** (406): The Cable News Network, a liberal leaning news station.

 **1976 Jimmy Carter** (406): Jimmy Carter was the American president from 1977-1981. He pardoned Vietnam War draft dodgers on his second day in office, and he is the only US president to have lived in subsidized housing before taking office. His lower class farming background meant that many saw him as a man of the people.

 **Gerald Ford** (406): Following Nixon’s Watergate scandal and resignation (to prevent impeachment), Gerald Ford was sworn in as president. He was president from 1974-1977 and is the only person to serve as both president and vice president without being voted in.

 **"Yellow rose of Texas"** (407): “The Yellow Rose of Texas” is a song from 1850 singing the praises of a beautiful biracial woman. 

**Wolf Biltzer** (408): An American journalist who has been an anchor for CNN since 1990 and is their lead political reporter.

 **West Side Bastardos** (408): Los Angeles Westside is (generally speaking) a younger, well-educated neighborhood. “Bastardos” is Spanish for “bastards”.

 **Gloria Estefan** (408): A Cuban-American singer/songwriter who has work in both Spanish and English. 

**Whiskey-warm drawl** (409): When you drink whiskey, it’s a warm sensation that starts in the back of your throat, then goes down to warm you up from the inside. Whiskey is also commonly associated with Texas/the Wild West.

 **Canvassed** (410): Canvassing is when you go door-to-door encouraging people to vote for a certain candidate.

 ** _Hunger Games_ cannon **(410): In _The Hunger Games_ , a canon goes off and an announcement appears in the sky when an contestant has been killed.

 **Backyard shooting range** (411): American gun law is... deeply broken, and Florida in particular is known for being a bit wild.

 **Mijo** (411): A Spanish term of endearment that literally translates to “My son”.

 **Mafioso** (413): A member of the mafia.

 **Brownstone** (414): A type of townhouse common in New York City that often cost millions.

 **Concession call** (414): A call from a political candidate admitting that they’ve lost a race.

 **Oil paintings** (415): Every American president has an official portrait of them, traditionally an oil painting.

 **Library of Congress** (415): The research library that officially serves congress and is the de facto national library of the US. 

**Dried flowers from a homecoming corsage** (416): When a girl is asked to her high school homecoming, the asker will typically buy her a corsage, a small bouquet worn around the wrist. 

**Cordless phone** (416): Probably a home phone (did other people grow up with those? Pre-cell phones), which would be used by everyone in the house.

 **Rec center tutoring** (416): Tutoring younger kids is a common volunteer project for high schoolers, and the fact that it’s at a community recreation center means that it is probably offered for free.

 **Barton Creek Greenbelt** (416): A long, thin park that runs through southwest Austin.

 **Cold-brews** (416): A type of iced coffee that has become especially popular in the past few years.

 **Lavaca** (417): A street in central Austin that runs past the Texas State Capital Building.

 **“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”** (417): A song about how a couple is going to make it through anything together and nothing is going to stop them from achieving their goals. 

**Everything’s bigger, after all** (417): A reference to the saying that everything’s bigger in texas.

 **Old West Austin** (417): A very well-off, historic district in Austin, TX.

 **Westover** (417): A road in Old West Austin, presumably the one Alex’s family used to live on.

\------

*Fun fact, J.M. Barrie wrote Peter Pan here! Another fun fact, Barrie was asexual!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the book! I've got a few more mini essays, BUT that's the glossary!  
> -  
> If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	16. Pyramus and Thisbe, Alex and Henry

You know that note Henry leaves in the pocket of Alex’s kimono? The one that references an Ancient Greek myth about lovers who almost made it but died? I’ve got a lot of thoughts and feelings about it so let’s chat.

(TW for a mention of suicide in the original myth; feel free to skip the end of the first paragraph if you need to.)

So. The basic myth is that Pyramus and Thisbe are lovers, but as their families forbid them from being together, they have to talk through a crack in the wall that joins their houses. They agree to run away and be together and arrange to meet in a cave near their homes, but Thisbe arrives first and finds a lion. She runs away, dropping her veil in the process. When Pyramus arrives, he finds the veil in the lion’s mouth and assumes that the lion has eaten Thisbe. He fights the lion to avenge her, and he kills it, but he dies either during or shortly after the fight. Thisbe comes back, finds him dead, and kills herself. 

What’s interesting about this myth to me, though, is the layers of interpretation/translation that it’s been through to get to us. It’s set in Babylon, which means that it might have originally been a Babylonian story. If that’s the case, it would predate what we typically think of as ancient (Hellenistic) Greece. There were trade routes between Babylon and Mycenaeic Greece (or Ancient Ancient Greece), so the story (or at least portions of it) could have traveled along those routes. Either way, it was an established Greek myth, BUT we don’t get it from Ancient Greece. The most complete version of the story we have is from Ovid, who was a Roman poet writing at least 100 years after the fall of Ancient Greece. 

(Then, lots of folks study it as part of studying Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which adds an entirely new layer of interpretation to the story. There are also parallels to Romeo and Juliet, but that’s a different story with an entirely different cultural context/connotation and not the story that Henry references, so we’re not going to talk about that here.)

SO, now that we’ve discussed all that, let’s chat about Alex and Henry. 

Henry writes:

“Thisbe, 

I wish there wasn’t a wall.

Love, Pyramus”

He places himself in the role of Pyramus, of the character who fought so hard. He gave everything he had for love, but it wasn’t enough to make that love work. If we ignore the massive systemic issues that keep them apart, it is Pyramus’s choice to fight the lion that brings both characters to their deaths. Henry casts himself as the figure who fights and fails, as the character who dies first, dragging his lover down to an early grave alongside him. 

Alex, then, is Thisbe, the woman who did everything right, but loved so much that it consumed her, making her lover’s death her own. On the other hand, Thisbe is the woman who ran, who saw the danger in waiting for Pyramus and left. She didn’t fight for the relationship, she didn’t try to hide and wait for him or find a way to make things work, she didn’t even leave a message. She just ran, so perhaps she deserves a share of the blame as well.

So that’s a whole load of emotions right there, that Henry sees himself as someone who will make a decision that dooms them both, inadvertently casting Alex as someone who ran from the relationship at the first hint of danger. But moving past it, let’s talk about the actual message. “I wish there wasn’t a wall”. Not “I wish it could have worked”, not “I wish the world were better”. “I wish there wasn’t a wall”. 

In the long run, the wall isn’t the thing keeping Pyramus and Thisbe apart; its their families’ hatred of each other and the systems in place in the world they live in. But, if the wall weren’t there, they would have a space that belonged to them. They had to talk in secret, which means that without the wall, they would have had a private, secret place to meet and be together.

So this note isn’t saying “I wish we could go public”. It’s not saying “I wish no one cared about us being together”. It’s saying something simpler; something so much quieter: “I wish we could be together”. Henry wrote this note after that night in LA, the night they went to the gay bar and got the chance to actually act like they were openly dating for once in their lives. It’s a night when he’s completely open, when his walls are down and he can be himself. When they’ve gotten as close as they can to being openly together. But it’s followed by a morning when they wake up together, when get ready for the day in the same time zone, when Alex watches him build Prince Henry for the day. It’s a morning when there isn’t an ocean-sized, five hour long wall between them, when they get the privilege of simply existing together. So Henry’s note isn’t about the night before, it’s about the morning, the desperate desire to simply love and exist with his partner in peace.

But what about all that extra history stuff? I’m so glad you asked. This is why it’s so important that the story referenced is Pyramus and Thisbe rather than Romeo and Juliet: because so much of this book is about legacy and layers, interpretation and history and leaving a mark. The history theme is most obvious in Red, White and Royal Blue, so we’ll talk about that first. The Pyramus and Thisbe myth carries with it the fingerprints of each of the people groups who told it before Ovid wrote it down. The setting is Babylonian, the violence in Ovid’s telling is Roman, and there are culturally Greek elements scattered throughout. Then, it’s retold again and again in pieces like Romeo and Juliet, which carry a whole host of their own cultural contexts and influences.

The bits of each culture’s history embedded in the myth are super important to Henry’s use of it, because he would be aware of these layers. I researched this myth for like ten minutes when I read Midsummer last semester and found all of them. And in looking at this myth, I can’t help but think about their letters and Henry wanting any legacy for him to be true. Those letters carry with them the fingerprints of every place and person who shaped them and made the world that they live in. Henry’s references to Greek mythology, the quotes from historical lovers, the mentions of their lives now and the ways their lives used to be and the history that surrounds them both in their ancient houses and their modern lives. They’re packed full of the same history that Ovid’s version of this myth is.

On the other hand, those layers of history reflect the ways that their emails would face the same treatment of this myth. You can’t tell me that Fox News and The Washington Post and my local college paper would all share the same pieces of those emails. All Henry wants is to be able to share himself with the world, a version of himself that is as true as it can be. And, like Pyramus and Thisbe, that chance is stolen from him. His story, like theirs, is retold so many times that the original is lost, getting to readers with only the bare bones of the truth, smoothed over and changed each time it’s retold. 

Then there’s the simple fact of the layers of telling and re-telling in this myth. It mirrors Henry that way, too. When we first meet him (through Alex), Henry seems pretty basic: he’s a prince, he’s stuck up, that’s it. He’s like this myth in a lot of ways because he’s set up as a standard story we’ve heard a million times. But he’s not; he’s so incredibly special and wonderful. Just like this myth, he has all of these things happening under the surface, and everything that Alex learns makes him want to learn more. This myth is the kind of thing that you could spend a lifetime studying and translating and learning about, and Henry is the exact same way. 

I don’t know if I was going anywhere with this; I just have a lot of feelings about the use of this myth in particular in the context of this book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


	17. "Baby", etc.

Whatever you do, don’t think about how Henry’s mom calls him “baby”. Don’t think about how he probably got called “baby” a lot growing up, and he got it from someone who fought for him so hard and loved him so unconditionally, and then he lost that when he lost his dad. Don’t think about Henry, grieving his dad and needing his family and them all disappearing.

Then don’t think about him as an adult, like five years latter, suddenly getting called “baby” again. Don’t think about how it was from this boy he’s in love with but not dating, who doesn’t understand, because he can’t understand. There’s no way Alex could know why “baby” means so much to Henry. He couldn’t know it’s a term that’s always meant he’s loved and accepted and he’s got someone on his side. He couldn’t know that “baby” carries the weight of a thousand suns, all willing to burn the world to keep Henry safe, then turn around and keep him warm.

Definitely don’t think about what that must have been like the first time Henry heard it. Was it during sex? Did he pull Alex closer and kiss him harder and pretend, just for a bit, that they love each other the same way? Was it after, when they were in bed together? Did he just melt into Alex? Was it over the phone, and Henry had to take a breath, had to touch one of the ancient pieces of furniture to ground himself and remember where and when he is, because no matter what that word used to mean, he’s still living in a world where he’s lost his parents and it’s just him and Bea and Pez against everyone else, and he’s lost the unconditional love and fight that “baby” used to imply?

Anyway don’t think about Henry’s mom calling him “baby” because you’ll have a lot of emotions for a Monday morning.

\-------  
So fun fact, the Waterloo Vase was passed between different collections for like 100 years because it was too heavy for any museum’s floor.

You know how Henry’s feelings for Alex were too big for a room in Buckingham, so he took them outside and pressed them into the Waterloo Vase? The vase that is probably the biggest thing in the Royal Collections, that’s literally too big to be inside? Yeah.

\------

A few other threads that I'm not going to copy/paste here because they're not my work, but are definitely worth checking out!

[On Henry's bravery and his attitude toward it.](https://hms-chill.tumblr.com/post/613965927753646080/minuut-per-minuut-minuut-per-minuut-the-way)

[On their use of quotes.](https://hms-chill.tumblr.com/post/613487911277674496/im-definitely-hermione-granger-hms-chill)

[ On Henry's "you are good".](https://minuut-per-minuut.tumblr.com/post/612778154698915840/do-you-ever-think-about-henry-saying-and-you-are)

[On the lost Pleiade bit, because I didn't know nearly enough to explain that well.](https://minuut-per-minuut.tumblr.com/post/612442202222755840/hello-lets-talk-about-one-of-my-absolute)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'm [HMS-Chill](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hms-chill) on tumblr for fic stuff and would love to chat there or here! Cheers!


End file.
